The Long Dark by B.J. Farmer (reading women .TXT) 📕

Aadesh, to his credit, tried. He was just wasn’t in any physical shape to deal a hard-enough blow to do much damage.

For my part, I was being punched, kicked, and generally pummeled by the two attackers. The thing I will always remember about that encounter was the emotionless smile one of my attackers had as he flailed my head and face with long, bony fingers. Maybe he was smiling when he drank the water, or perhaps it was just a byproduct of whatever had poisoned him. Maybe the bastard liked attacking me. I didn’t care other than it freaked the hell out of me.

I fought back as hard as I could, but I was being overwhelmed. I did manage to knock one of them off me long enough for Aadesh to get a few delaying blows before he was back up and on me again.

My six-foot-five frame was big, but not big enough to stop my descent to the ground. With the slow-walkers just feet away from us, I was just delaying an almost inevitable fate. I was indecisive as hell when it came to making decisions, but I never backed down from a fight, especially a good one. I had enough scars on my face and head to back that up, too.

One of the infrequent times I came back home, and after an especially bad fight in a seedy place in Louisiana, I looked terrible. Cuts and bruises covered my face. My mother was beside herself when she saw me. “Ruffians,” she said. I wondered what she would think of me at that moment, being beat senseless by two braindead humans. But I guess that’s what she would’ve called my friends.

Two gunshots were fired. My ears rang like hell for a few seconds. I felt more than a little confused because of the beating I had received, but the murmur of slow-walkers caused my overworked adrenal glands to release a fresh round of adrenaline into my body. Aadesh poked his hand out at me. I rolled one of the bodies off me and grabbed his outstretched hand.

Aadesh pummeled one of the lead walkers in the side of his head with the rifle. “Dere was no choice in de madder. Id was you or dem,” he said.

I gave him a quick nod of appreciation, and we were running again.

***

The Sniffers still followed. We could, I thought, outrun them. The vehicles I heard a few blocks away was a more significant threat, primarily if anyone had heard the shots. The steps to the side entrance of the hotel was mere feet away. We crossed over the ground in between the post office and the hotel and hurtled the mounding of snow that resulted from clearing the street between the two buildings.

We entered the side door just as the Sniffers came into view. They seemed to be either really fast or really slow. There were very few in between. The group that followed us was of the really slow variety. All but two Sniffers stayed corralled along the snowbank and carried on in that direction, unaffected by having lost sight of us. The two who peeled off clumsily made their way over the snowbank and headed in the heading of the side door we had just entered. But then they just stopped.

We waited at the door for at least ten minutes for them to leave. Their bodies were completely still, but their noses were up and power-sniffing the air around them. Trying to regain our scent, no doubt. These two, while still slow, seemed to be smarter than the others that had chased us. Finally, they lowered their noses and walked off in the same direction as their snow-corralled brethren.

After securing a room on the third floor, we went about taking blankets from nearby rooms. While we were out clearing rooms, we also looked in every conceivable place for a kerosene heater, but the hotel only had small electric heaters, which were obviously not going to be of much help.

We were starving, thirsty, and freezing. We talked about breaking into the vending machines. After a few minutes looking them over, we decided it would be the option of last resort. It’d be noisy, and with not having thoroughly cleared the first or second floors, we couldn’t take that chance. I hadn’t planned to stay at the hotel very long, anyway. We would let the area outside the hotel completely clear of Sniffers and then finish the trip to Miley’s office as soon as possible.

Luckily, Aadesh had found a stash of food in one of the rooms. Not only that, but he also found an unopened bag of hand warmers, which at the time seemed like a big deal.

Neither of us talked for a long time after that. We sat there swaddled in our blankets, and even with the hand warmers close to our bodies, we were having a difficult time staying warm. I stood and began to walk around the room. Trying to keep my mind off being cold, I said, “Do you know anything about EMP?”

It took Aadesh a moment to come back to his senses. “Elecdromagnedic pulse?” He asked a rasp to his voice.

“Yeah. Avery told me he thought we were attacked by an EMP. He started jabbering about some other stuff, but luckily William began his speech, so I shut him up. I wish I’d let him speak.”

“I thoud aboud being an elecdrical engineer for a shord while, bud circuid analysis desdroyed my life, so I dropped de bidch and sdarded sdudying rocks instead.”

“But you know a little about it, then?”

“A wery liddle. I know an EMP gives off a pulse of energy dad can overload elecdronics. Id desdroys capacidors, chips, and de like, but dad is aboud whad I know. I preddy much know only rocks now.”

“You’re no help.”

“Dad’s why I smoke de weed.”

“Your parents must be proud.”

“Nod really.” He smiled. “Dey’re really quide disappoinded.”

“They’d seen you shoot those dudes attacking